Film Friday: Kill All Hippies

Last week one of our regular commenters, Derek Jensen, said he’d be going to see District 9 again rather than anything new. Perhaps this week we can convince him (and you?) to go and see In the Loop, because it’s still playing and still fantastic. It’s at the Cumberland (159 Cumberland Street) daily at 1:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:15 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. The last film we trailed repeatedly was probably the final cut of Blade Runner, so that should let you know how much we like In the Loop.
Otherwise this week we don’t find very much that we want to tell you to run out and see. The strongest candidate for that is Lorna’s Silence, a success from last year’s TIFF and the most recent film from the Dardenne brothers. With many grim dramas almost certain to be ingested at this year’s TIFF (a mere couple of weeks away) we’ll skip it, but NOW‘s Norm Wilner calls it a “clinical study of socioeconomic desperation” that “gradually turns into something much more involving and haunting.”
Of vague interest is Enlighten Up!, a documentary about a skeptic’s yoga immersion and an examination of its claims of spiritual transformation. We’ve taken up yoga, actually, over the last couple of weeks, and enjoy it because it seems like pretty good exercise but haven’t really thought about the spiritual aspects at all (and are pretty much doing our best not to). However, most reviews of this film only seem to have anything good to say about the segment that features Diamond Dallas Page, a fairly famous pro-wrestler who is now a proponent of “Yoga for Regular Guys.” You can read a pretty big section of his book here, so maybe the film isn’t essential? The Star‘s Greg Quill says it is “not a satisfying movie experience.”
Also out is Taking Woodstock, a film about, well, Woodstock, but with the weirdest cast and crew ever—Demetri Martin, Eugene Levy, with Ang Lee directing? It’d be interesting if they hadn’t made a film about Woodstock. You know you are interested in this film if you don’t immediately think “bloody hippies” when you hear about the festival, and if you don’t immediately think that you probably smell like patchouli and should cut your hair.
Also out this week: You Might as Well Live and Black. Black stars the intriguingly named MC Jean Gab’1 and Eye Weekly‘s Kevin Hill just as intriguingly claims the film borrows “from the (often terrible) Nollywood movies of Nigeria.” And hey! There’s a Toronto African Film Festival starting tomorrow, too! It doesn’t feature any films from Nigeria, sadly.